Pillars of Fire In My Soul

Faustina, the reception of Holy Communion pours out upon a soul a complete renewal of baptismal grace. Of course, this immediately raises the question of whether it is proper to the nature of the Eucharist to be the source of such an exceptional measure of grace. The answer is clear from the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas and of the magisterium itself. St. Thomas declares very clearly: Moreover, not only are all the other sacraments ordered toward the Eucharist, but they produce their proper grace only in virtue of their relationship to the Eucharist. The Eucharist alone has of itself the power to confer grace, while the other sacraments confer grace only in virtue of the desire (votum) which their recipients have of receiving the Eucharist also. St. Thomas elaborates further: “This sacrament [of the Eucharist] has in itself the power to confer grace. No one has grace before receiving this sacrament except by a certain desire ( votum ) to receive it, the person’s own desire in the case of an adult, or the Church’s desire in the case of infants, as has been said above ( Summa , III, q.73, art.3). Accordingly it is from the effectiveness of its power that even from the mere desire to receive [this sacrament] a person obtains grace whereby he is spiritually alive. Still it is true that when the sacrament itself is actually received, grace is increased and the spiritual life is perfected. ... It is by this sacrament, however, that grace is increased and the spiritual life is perfected, in order that man may be made perfect in him- self through his being conjoined to God” ( Summa , III, q. 79, art. I ad I. See also parallel passages). This teaching is the foundation for the recommendation made by the Catechism of the Council of Trent to pastors of souls, when it obliges them to explain to the faithful what an 128 Pillars of Fire in My Soul